Flight heralds new Nimrod era

A SECOND new generation Nimrod aircraft has taken to the sky as part of BAE System's é1bn-plus redevelopment contract. The flight from Woodford, near to Stockport, up to Warton, Lancashire, came just 110 days after the inaugural flight of the Nimrod MRA4 and is a major boost to the north west aerospace sector.

A SECOND new generation Nimrod aircraft has taken to the sky as part of BAE System's é1bn-plus redevelopment contract.

The flight from Woodford, near to Stockport, up to Warton, Lancashire, came just 110 days after the inaugural flight of the Nimrod MRA4 and is a major boost to the north west aerospace sector.

Around half of the 1,200 people working on the project are employed at Woodford.

The success of the trials of the first three aircraft is critical to BAE's hopes of landing the lucrative production contract.

The Ministry of Defence has indicated a requirement for a fleet of around 12 Nimrod MRA4, although this is dependent on the outcome of the trials programme and agreement on an acceptable price.

Since the original announcement of the Nimrod upgrade by the government there have been a number of problems, including delays and cost rises.

No decision has yet been taken on when or where production will take place.

A BAE Systems spokesman said today: "It's fair to say the project has had something of a chequered past, but in the last 18 months all the major milestones and reviews have been met. We have a design and development contract for three aircraft and are now talking to the government about the production contract."

According to BAE the second aircraft, dubbed PA02, is the most critical of all three design and development aircraft, for it will test the aircraft's complex brain - the mission system - and demonstrate the major changes in capability over the current in-service Nimrod MR2. With around five million lines of computer code the aircraft should be able to process up to 20 times more data than its predecessor.

Joe Harland, Nimrod MRA4 managing director, said: "We could not wish for a more positive and encouraging note on which to end 2004, thanks to the sustained efforts of the entire Nimrod team.

The first flight of PA02 marks the conclusion of a highly-successful year for the programme, where we hit every major milestone, including the high-profile inaugural flight. "We will now go on to fly the third and final design and development aircraft, PA03, next summer, and continue in our discussions with the MOD about the all- important production contract".

Flight trials involving all three aircraft are expected to continue until 2006-2007.

Other sites involved in the programme are in Chadderton, Yorkshire and at Farnborough .